


Contract, Duty, Promise

by orphan_account



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-01
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-03-09 23:29:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3268301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Archie remembers when he and Maxie had a different sort of contract. Based off tumblr user classy-doctor's demon AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Contract, Duty, Promise

The worst thing about being so inherently separated, so far apart, was that they had never been together in the first place. They were never in a romantic relationship. Archie had never called Maxie his lover—his friend, his partner-in-crime, his lifesaver, and his rock, but never his boyfriend. Their kinship seemed too deep to be summarized in a word like that; boyfriend was a shallow word, unable to express his true feelings. But now that the word seemed gone forever, an impossibility to ever utter, he regretted not saying it at least once.

 

There was a time when they had felt closer than any other living souls. When their fates were tied together in a twisted knot, when they were bound together more tightly than any contract could mandate. They had met each either as two separate beings, but over time their destinies had tangled together, in and on themselves, so much that loose ends were few and far between. Their connection had been inseverable.

 

Until it wasn’t. _‘Til death did they part._

 

They were both young at the time. Archie could still be considered young; not old enough to ever truly consider marriage, at the very least. Especially not with exorcism as his chosen career path. But the phrase held true, and even back then, something like it had constantly floated throughout his mind.

 

 

 

After his first demon hunt with Maxie, the slightly-older man had approached him, drawing him into a much-needed hug. Archie had broke down crying, seeing the horrifying water demon’s face shrivel up to reveal a pitiable woman who died by drowning. The spell circle revealed a demon’s weakest moments, those just before death. He had watched her die, drowned along with her lover by another demon. Bubbles filled his entire vision and her last thoughts echoed in his mind, too weak to comprehend, but blocking out all others in a cacophony of whispers. He screamed in horror, begging for Maxie to do something, anything to interfere.

 

As the last bit of life left her, she floated up to the surface of the water and the vision dissipated in a flurry of bubbles. The dead woman still stood before him, weak and terrified, and Archie instinctively began to step forward to help her.

 

Maxie held his ground, shooting her dead with only the most fleeting look of sympathy. Archie saw his arms shake slightly as he dropped the gun, but they steadied in seconds, Maxie’s emotions forgotten as he strode over to assuage Archie’s. The younger man was not yet taller than him, so the hug Maxie initiated when they met was less awkward, Archie’s need for support easier to satisfy when they had both been the same size. Maxie had held him up to keep him from falling, his hands making slow motions on his back to calm him.

 

“I understand. My first exorcism was like this, too. But it’s our duty to kill any demon we encounter.”

 

“Each demon has its own tragic backstory, as it was once a victim of a spirit itself. We have to learn to cope with killing demons, even when every time we purify them we learn their true past… one day, we may have to kill the demonic incarnation of someone we know. We will both have to be ready for it.”

 

Archie sobbed loudly, badly-withheld tears streaming down the front of Maxie’s coat. “This can’t be how it ends for all of us! It’s so unfair, that poor woman… I could never kill someone I know, Maxie.”

 

“Our world, haunted by malevolent spirits and good ones that do not do enough, is horribly unjust and corrupt. I know it’s unfair, Archie. Despite that, it is our obligation to enact justice whenever we can… to defend the goodness in this world. Every time I purify a demon, I know I’m also killing the person they once were in cold blood, and I’m horrified to know that I’m the type of person who can do that. But it’s my _job,_ Archie, and it’s yours too.”

 

“I… do not have many hopes for the future. Being an exorcist, I can’t expect my soul to be spared or saved. All I want is to be able to do my duty with you as long as I can.”

 

That was the closest thing they had to wedding vows. A prayer, not for salvation, but for delayed punishment. As for a kiss afterward…

 

It had only happened once or twice. Archie adjusted to being an exorcist quickly, no longer weeping when a demon’s past was revealed. Fighting with them daily helped. Seeing them recklessly and intentionally hurt Maxie and others had made it easy. Their injuries had decreased when his reluctance disappeared. He put every ounce of energy he had into fighting demons so others wouldn’t get hurt.

 

That didn’t make exorcising demons an easy job.

 

Each day posed a new challenge—just as no human was the same in life, no demon was the same in death. Sometimes one of them would get hurt. They would fear for their life. They would fear for each other’s lives even more than their own—dying on its own didn’t mean having to kill your partner.

 

After particularly grueling battles, they would embrace each other, joy overflowing into exuberant kisses and relieved exclamations of _“It almost had you! Thank Arceus you’re still okay!”_ Then they would separate again, the tide of love that overcame them receding before it flooded them completely. Content in their shared affection, but with a sheepish avoidance of stating it outright outside of the most stressful situations. Deep down, they were both aware that a romantic relationship in their line of work was risky, dangerous, and inevitably doomed; a bad idea, they both quietly concluded. Separately, they would both swear to themselves that their feelings were better off as they were. After any sort of emotional outburst, Maxie would blush and retreat, recommitting himself to designing a protection for exorcists; a talisman of some sort that could prevent them from meeting the same fate as the demons they purified.

 

Some nights Maxie's near-impenetrable wall of determination would crack and he would break down, lamenting the fate that seemed to await all of them in the end. Their old mentor-student relationship would reverse. Sobbing into Archie, who had since surpassed him in height, he would wonder what the point of all this was, when in the end he would simply end up a demon himself, inflicting so much pain on others.

 

Archie could never assure him that life was worth living for its own sake, his largest personal failure. Instead, he said that the pin would be done soon, that he would never die before that, and that he would never turn into a demon and hurt others. Archie would kill him himself before he could do that. If that ever came to pass.

 

That had seemed to reassure Maxie, most nights. He believed in him to complete his pledge—in his eyes, to follow his duty as an exorcist.

 

 

 

Archie, staring at the near-invisible symbol of a contract on his hand, could only think how he had failed Maxie in both of his promises.

**Author's Note:**

> I have some ideas and a little bit more already written for this AU, but I'm not sure where I'd be going with it. If I end up writing more, this will still stay a somewhat standalone thing, I think.
> 
> Still trying to get Archie's and Maxie's characterizations down. Still trying to get writing at all (especially dialogue) down...


End file.
